Vanessa Hudgens and her mom are getting through their grief together

The night that Grease: Live aired, we all learned that Vanessa Hudgens is a powerhouse. Not only did she deliver a knockout performance as Rizzo, but she did it while powering through her father’s death just hours before from stage four cancer. Once the curtain closed, Hudgens has been able to mourn her father alongside her family and friends.

It’s been three months since Greg Hudgens passed away, and Hudgens opened up to People about how her family is helping her cope with grief.

Her mother’s strength is guiding her through this time, she says. “She’s so strong through the hardest of times,” she tells People. “But she has this lightheartedness and this light that just beams out of her very being and it’s so special. Life is about perspective. The way you choose to see your life is the way your life is going to become.”

She heaps praise on her mother’s way of seeing the world, which Hudgens is beginning to take on as her own. “My mom looks out through such beautiful eyes,” says Hudgens. “I’ve learned to follow her lead.”

Of course, she also has hard times, and her attitude is a simple one — “It sucks.” At the end of the day, there’s nothing more you can say. She continues, “There are highs and there are lows. It sucks, but death happens. It never makes it easier but it happens to all of us. It’s just something we have to get through until we all meet again in heaven.”